Mutual Attraction
by the-Bookworm-Princess
Summary: Tony and Kate finally realize that they love each other. This is a followup for The Perfect Gift for those of you who wanted it. :D .
1. One Room, One Bed

Title: Mutual Attraction

Author: Jeana

Spoilers: none

Pairing: Tony/Kate all the way!

Disclaimer: Navy NCIS is the property of Belisaurius, Paramount, DPB, CBS, and all that jazz...The characters just run around in my head all day long, so I put them to work. (And yes I realize that on one of my previous disclaimers, I said that DPB stood for "Donald P. Belisaurius". Blonde moment, sorry. The NCIS characters have all been created by Donald P. Bellisario.

Author's Note: Thank you Hannah and nikkinor for catching my mistakes. I hope you all enjoy. This is a two-parter, just to let y'all know.

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Chapter 1

"Alright, guys, here's the deal: we were only able to get two rooms," Gibbs informed us, holding up two keys. "Kate, I'll let you decide who you want to room with."

'_Oh, how considerate of him,' _I thought, _'letting me choose which man I will be stuck with all night long.'_ I opened my mouth to say 'McGee', thinking that he would be the safest choice, but instead heard myself say, "Tony." _'Tony! Why the heck did I say that?'_ I wondered. I had a little - alright a big - crush on him, and I would be torturing myself with him as my roommate!

I saw the surprise in all of their faces, especially Tony's. Gibbs even raised an eyebrow at me, but I maintained my composure, acting as if I had meant to choose Tony all along. I picked up my bag and grabbed a key from Gibbs. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I began walking towards the room. Realizing that Tony was not following me, I stopped and turned around. "You coming?" I asked in an exasperated tone.

Tony shook himself out of his shocked state, grabbed his bag, and quickly caught up with me.

When I reached the door, I set my bag down and inserted the key into the slot. _'It won't be that bad,'_ I reasoned. _'At least-'_ the door swung open and I groaned; there was only one bed. _'Gibbs conveniently left out that little detail,'_ I thought angrily. Stepping inside, I threw my bag next to the nightstand and flopped down on the bed. I rubbed my tired eyes; it had been along day. Suddenly I felt the spot next to me depress. I opened my eyes to see Tony sitting on the edge of the bed, removing his shoes.

I sat up, grabbed the remote, and began flipping through the channels. "Great, no cable," I muttered. Out of the ten stations that the motel received, there was nothing on. _'Perfect! Guess I'll have to make conversation with DiNozzo for entertainment,'_ I concluded.

But Tony broke the silence before I had a chance. "Hey, Kate, I hope you don't mind me asking; you've got me way curious. Why did you pick me?" He lay down beside me with his back against the headboard.

"Well, Tony," I began, thinking quickly, "McGee snores, and Gibbs talks in his sleep, so I'm stuck with you."

"So, it has nothing to do with the fact that you are attracted to me?" he asked with one of his grins.

"Nope," I replied, not denying his assumption. I quickly turned and began digging in my bag that lay on the floor. I had no idea what I was looking for, I just had to hide the blush that I could feel burning on my cheeks. My hands found a thick book, which I was now very glad I had packed. Pulling it out, I began reading.

Deciding that I wasn't going to talk to him, Tony retrieved his Gameboy from his bag and began playing some game with an annoying frequency of beeps.

Well, the book turned out to be pretty boring, so I let my thoughts wander and found myself recounting the events of the day. We hadn't had to wait long for Gibbs' phone to ring, and soon we were on our way to Salem, New Jersey. First Lieutenant Richard Holmes had been murdered - one shot to the head - in his home, and had been found by his girlfriend, Lilly. His house had been sacked and his safe robbed in all entirety; it was plain that it had been forced open.

His house had been sacked, and the now-empty safe in his closet had been forced open. Lilly told us that the only thing Holmes' kept in there was his coin collection, and, she informed us, it was extremely valuable. By the time we finished investigating, it was too late to return home, so we ended up here.

Around nine-thirty, I put away my book, grabbed my pajamas and toiletry bag and went into the bathroom. After I changed, I came out and looked at myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. I sighed miserably. _'Why did I have to bring the "cutesy" pajamas?'_ I asked myself. _'Oh yeah, they are the only warm ones that I have.'_ They were pink with little white sheep and numbers on them, and consisted of pants and a long-sleeved button-up shirt. The buttons on the shirt were spaced such that if I buttoned the top one, it was almost choking me, but if I left it undone, I showed a little bit of cleavage. _'Well,'_ I thought, unfastening the top button, _'maybe I can make a run for it and dive under the covers.'_ So I turned and ran - smack- straight into Tony.

"Whoa!" He grabbed my shoulders to steady me. "Slow down, Kate, I'll be here all night." He grinned. It was then that he noticed what I was wearing. As his eyes fell upon my unbuttoned collar, his lips curved slightly upward in a small smile. He looked the whole outfit over and then said, "Cute."

"Thanks." I noticed that he was still holding me, and although my mind told me to shake loose from his grasp, I didn't move; I just stared back into his green eyes.

After a few seconds, he released me. Then, picking up his clothes that I had knocked to the floor, he went into the bathroom.

I shuffled over to the bed, crawled under the covers, and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heartbeat. _'Chill out, Kate! All he did was grab your shoulders!'_ my logical side said.

_'But his arms were so strong!'_ my emotional side countered.

_'Wouldn't it be great for him to wrap those strong arms around you?'_

_'Yeah, like that will ever happen.'_

I began humming, trying to silence my thoughts.

By the time Tony came out of the bathroom and finished brushing his teeth, I was ready to go to sleep. He returned wearing a blue t-shirt and navy flannel pants. He climbed into the bed next to me and turned off the lamp. "G'night," he mumbled.

"Goodnight." I lay there for a few minutes before realizing how cold it was. "Tony, did you turn on the heater?"

"Yes."

"It's still freezing in here." I shuddered.

"Aww, does Katie wanna snuggle?" he teased, scooting next to me.

"Touch me, DiNozzo, and you're dead."

"Okay, okay." He slid back over to his side of the bed.

I shivered again and sighed. Rolling over so that I was next to him, I muttered, "I'll shoot you, if you breathe a word of this to anyone."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he grinned, wrapping a strong arm around my shoulders and pulling me against his body.

Well _that_ warmed me up right away! I could feel the heat shooting through my body. I snuggled deeper into his embrace and slid an arm around his waist.

As I pulled myself closer to him, he murmured in my ear, "Ha! I knew it was a mutual attraction."

"Wow, you're smarter than I thought," I teased back. It was dark, but I knew he was smiling.

Then he began gently stroking my hair. "Can I call you 'Katie'?"

"Mmm."

"Katie-" it has never sounded more wonderful that then, coming from his lips "-I've known you for about a year now, and I think you're incredible. I really like you, Kate. I mean, _really, really_ like you. And I was hoping that maybe…if you feel the same way about me… maybe we could…date?"

_'Oh my gosh!'_ I thought, _'He's asking me out!'_ I thought of all the things I liked about him: his sense of humor, his charm, his wit, his skills…the good heavily outweighed the bad. I gave him my answer: "Yes, Tony."

"Really, You'll be my girlfriend? You mean it?"

"Yes, Tony, I'll be your girlfriend."

"Alright! DiNozzo charm wins again."

I rolled my eyes; as if he needed this to boost his already huge ego. "Yeah, yeah…" I nuzzled his chest with my nose and could picture in my mind the grin that had to be on his face. Finally I murmured, "You know, we should get some sleep; tomorrow will be busy."

"Yeah."

"Goodnight, Tony."

He kissed my cheek and I beamed. "Goodnight, Katie."


	2. Interruptions

I awoke the next morning lying on my side and feeling refreshed. I pulled back the covers and saw a muscular arm draped across my stomach. I looked behind me and smiled; there next to me was Tony, sleeping peacefully. I didn't get up, as was my original intent, but instead gently laid the covers back down and then slowly inched closer to him until body was pressed against his.

I felt his arm tighten around my waist, and then heard a mumbled, "'Morning, Kate."

"Good morning, Tony." I started to get up, but his arm kept me firmly in place. He leaned over and started kissing the back of my neck. "My, you move fast," I commented, loving his attention.

"Only when there's nothing stopping me," he murmured into my neck.

After a moment I said, "You know, Tony, Gibbs is gonna come and break the door down soon if we don't get a move on."

"Probably." He continued kissing me.

"Tony, come on." I freed myself from his grasp. "We have a case to solve."

He sighed. "Oh, alright."

I grabbed a fresh set of clothes and my shower stuff and headed for the bathroom. Tony stood up and started to follow me into the small room. "And just where do you think you're going?" I asked him.

"If we shower together, it would save time," he said with a trademark DiNozzo grin.

"In your dreams, Tony," I chuckled, walking into the bathroom.

"Aw, come on." He stuck out his bottom lip and tried his best to look pitiful.

"Ha. You're cute, but you're not _that_ cute." With that, I shut the door in his face. I heard a muffled 'hmph' on the other side and smiled. I showered quickly, dried off, and got dressed. I emerged from the bathroom and said, "Your turn."

"Finally," Tony said, hopping off the bed. "You took long enough."

I looked at the clock. "I took fifteen minutes!" I cried, incredulous.

"Yeah!" he nodded. "That's a long time." He walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

I rolled my eyes and reached for the hair dryer that was attached to the wall.

No more than five minutes later, Tony came out of the bathroom, clean and dressed. "See, Kate?" he said over the noise of the hair dryer, _That_'s fast."

"Whatever." I continued brushing and drying. I bent over, letting my hair hang down in front of me so that I could dry the underside. I noticed Tony watching me intently and asked, "And just what is it that you find so fascinating?"

"Nothing," he replied nonchalantly, but continued staring.

I was about to chalk it up to his being bored when I realized that, from where he stood, he had a pretty good view down the front of my blouse. I immediately straightened up, flipping my hair behind me with a whip of my head. "Tony, you are such a pervert." He just grinned. I sighed in disgust and hung the appliance back on the wall. Then I tried to pull my un-cooperative hair into a ponytail.

"So, Katie," he began, watching me fight with my hair, "how long have you had the hots for me?"

I blushed. "I dunno, but I thought you were cute when I first met you on Air Force One."

"Really? 'Cause I thought for sure you had a thing for Gibbs."

"Oh, please. Gibbs is a great, hard-working guy, and he's handsome and all, but being with him all the time would drive me crazy. Ha!" I succeeded in forcing my hair into a decent ponytail.

"So, Gibbs is handsome, but I'm just cute?"

"Yup." I grinned and reached for my toothbrush.

He looked at his watch, grabbed his toothbrush, and joined me at the sink.

When I had finished, I looked up at him. "How long have you-" I made quotation marks with my fingers "-'had the hots' for _me_?"

He rinsed and spit into the sink. "When we were on the Enterprise and we were arguing about which way to go was when I first thought of the possibility of us as something more than just coworkers." I smiled at him. He took a step towards me, and our bodies nearly touched. "Katie?"

"Hmm?"

"I…I love you, Katie."

I licked my lips nervously as he placed hand on the side of my face, then slowly leaned in to kiss me. His lips were an inch away from mine when here was a loud pounding at the door.

I gasped and Tony dropped his hand.

"Pack it up! Let's go!" came the unmistakable bellow of our boss. _'Darn you, Gibbs!'_ I thought as Tony looked from the door back to me; I could see the longing in his eyes. I gave him a sympathetic smile and said softly, "We should go."

"Yeah," he muttered as he watched me gather my toiletries. "Katie?"

"Yes, Tony?" I looked up as I unzipped my duffel.

"This isn't over." This time I noticed a twinkle in his gorgeous green eyes.

"I know." I winked at him and he wiggled his eyebrows in return. We quickly packed our duffels and met Gibbs and McGee in the lobby.

xxxxxx

After getting a lead confirmed by Abby, we drove out to a pawn shop; it was where the suspected murderer of Holmes was supposed to be selling Holmes' coin collection. Gibbs assigned Tony and me to the back door while he and McGee took the front. "We don't move until we see the coins," he instructed us.

As we waited there, crouched in the alley behind the shop, thoughts of earlier that morning filled my mind. "Tony?"

"Hmm?" Our eyes met

"Don't you think that now's as good a time as any to finish what we started?"

He grinned and leaned over once more to kiss me. This time, our lips were a hair's breadth apart when we heard Gibbs' voice over out earpieces. "We have a visual! Move in!" I groaned as we stood; these interruptions were getting on my nerves.

xxxxxx

Well, we caught the guy, and he immediately confessed. We sent him away in a squad car and straightened everything out with the shop owner.

"Alright, guys, let's go," Gibbs said as he and McGee began walking to the car.

As soon as Gibbs turned his back to us, Tony grabbed my arm, pulled me against him and pressed his lips to mine. It wasn't a long kiss, but it was wonderful, nonetheless. When we pulled away, he was grinning triumphantly. I smiled, glad that we hadn't been interrupted this time.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs called. _'Oh my gosh! Did he see us?'_ I thought worriedly. _'But he couldn't have; he didn't turn around.'_

"Yes, boss?"

"You do that again on company time," he said, not looking back, "and I'll partner you with McGee for the rest of the year."

Finis

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Author's Note: I hope you guys liked it. I hope it wasn't too corny. I am sorry about the weird numbers that were appearing all over the story. Hopefully they are now fixed. I will have another fluffy story coming out in time for Valentine's Day. : ) ;):D 


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